A heavy snowstorm affected the Ming Dynasty's war against the Jin State, Shanxi, Hebei, Liaodong and other places also appeared in different degrees of snow disasters, heavy snow crushed the houses are not a few, the government had to mobilize the gentry to organize rescue.

The Mongolian steppe in the north of Yanshan is already a snowy expanse, and the Mongolian Guiyi, who submitted to the Ming Dynasty, inevitably suffered from the snow disaster.

The ability of nomads to resist natural disasters is much weaker than that of the Central Plains Dynasty, and a snowstorm is enough to destroy a tribe.

However, Guiyi Mongolia, which is distributed on the line of the Great Wall, has a good life because of the support of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty established order for them, demarcated pastures, and raised cattle, sheep, and horses could be sold to the Ming Dynasty, and the meat, wool, and leather they provided for the Ming Dynasty could be exchanged for a lot of grain and salt, so even if a large number of cattle and sheep froze to death, with the previous reserves, they could survive the coming year.

To the north of Yanshan, on the plateau on the Bashang Plateau, the birthplace of the Luan River, a fortress rises over the snow-capped grassland.

This is Dingbei Fort, after the Ming Dynasty defeated the Southern Mongolia and the Eastern Mongolia, a military fort was established here, the structure of the fortress refers to the fortress of the Heyi in the South Ocean, built into a prismatic shape, and manages the pasture within a radius of nearly 100 miles.

Dingbei Fort was not large, and was mainly used for military purposes, and occasionally some of it was rented out to merchants traveling to and from Mongolia as warehouses.

In order to reduce the pressure of supplies, there were no civilians in the fort, only 500 cavalry garrisoned, and their duty was to prohibit the tribes from crossing the border to herd, deal with the conflicts between the tribes, and then collect taxes.

Such a fortress is not only Dingbei Fort, they usually go deep into the grassland for hundreds of miles, and it is with their existence that the Ming Dynasty can manage the grassland.

The Ming Dynasty divided the large Mongolian tribes into small tribes of about 1,000 people, and let them accept management, intending to establish a stable order in the steppe where the law of the jungle and tribes were annexed.

It is easy to see the fort, but it is difficult to maintain, especially the transportation of grain, but the Ming Dynasty has a strategy for this, on the one hand, it collects cattle and sheep from various ministries as taxes, and on the other hand, it carries out a wool monopoly system, so that the herdsmen can send wool to the fortress, and if the merchant wants wool, he has to help the imperial court transport a batch of grain to the fortress, and then he has the right to buy and sell wool.

This was inspired by the salt introduction system in the early Ming Dynasty, and its implementation did reduce the cost of Ming rule over Mongolia, not only reducing the cost, but also making some surplus.

In recent years, as the Ming army gained a firm foothold in the grasslands, the Ming Dynasty's rule over Guiyi Mongolia really had a certain effect, and along the Great Wall under the control of the Ming Dynasty, it can be said that it has been very peaceful in the past two years.

However, there are gains and losses, and with the improvement of the tranquil environment and living conditions, these returned Mongols will naturally gradually lose their wildness, and the desire for war will be reduced.

After all, people still crave order, the risk of robbery is too high, if you can live well, the safety of life is guaranteed, even if you are nomadic, you will not joke with your life.

At the end of October of the eighth year of the reign of the Communist Party, the snow fell early and heavy in the grasslands, and the Mongolian steppes were covered with snow.

At this time, on a snow-covered steppe, more than a dozen Guiyi Mongolians, wearing bloated cotton clothes and sheepskin felt hats, were driving six or seven hundred cattle and sheep to Dingbei Fort in the east.

The leader of the team was a Mongolian man in his forties, he was the deputy Qianhu of the Chihe Department in the west of Dingbei Fort, leading more than a dozen men in the tribe, ready to drive cattle and sheep to your pass to exchange some grain, salt and cotton cloth.

This year, the snow is heavy, the weather is cold, the cattle and sheep in the tribe have begun to freeze to death, and the herdsmen can't take care of too many cattle and sheep, so they decided to rush a batch to the customs to sell.

It is now the end of the year, and Kannai has already begun to prepare for the festival, and the price of beef and mutton has risen some, and after they are just sold, they will exchange some grain, tea and other things needed on the grassland.

If they had encountered this kind of snow disaster in previous years, they could only watch the cattle and sheep freeze to death, starve to death, and then rot.

In the coming year, they had to slaughter and eat the remaining cattle and sheep, and when there were no cattle and sheep, the whole tribe would have a famine, and they could only desperately grab other people's food and cattle and sheep.

This year, they can drive the cattle and sheep into the customs to sell, change a batch of grain back, and eat more grain and less meat in the coming year, so that the cattle and sheep that have survived the winter can continue to reproduce and give birth to more lambs.

Behind the man at the head, a teenager followed, riding on a horse, his nose was red from the cold, and he kept running his nose, he hurriedly wiped it with his sleeve, and asked with a white breath: "Uncle Aba, how far is there to go!" ”

The Ming Dynasty gave Guiyi Mongolia eight Han surnames, and the ancient men of the first Mongolia had Chinese names, but it didn't take long for them to be called unsatisfactory, and the young man was still used to calling him Uncle Aba.

"It's not far away, and then more than ten miles is Dingbei Fort, and when we pay the tax and get the customs clearance disc, we will go south to the market in the Guannai." The man replied with a smile.

If the Guiyi Mongols want to trade in the Guannai, they must first go to the nearby military fort to pay taxes, leave some cattle and sheep as rations for the fort, and then the officials of the military fort will give them customs clearance documents, indicating the quantity and type of goods and the accompanying personnel, and they can clear the customs and enter the market within the Great Wall to trade.

In the past two years, Mo Nan was calm, there was no fighting, no one came to rob the pastures, and the merchants of Guannai and Liaodong were also willing to come, and the prices of the goods brought were lower, and the life of Guiyi Mongolia was generally much better.

In the past, because it was not peaceful, the various departments were strife, and the merchants did not dare to come, so an iron pot and a pound of tea could be exchanged for a cow and sheep.

This year, the tribe has changed a lot of tea and salt just by shearing sheep, so Uncle Abba is in a good mood.

When the young man heard that he could go to Guannai, he couldn't help but be excited, Uncle Abba looked at him and said with a smile: "You will be fifteen next year, if you want to go to Guannai, you can talk to your father, let him send you to Nanjing to study, see the world, and by the way, help Uncle bring some things to Brother Aman, he is said to have a lot of expenses in Nanjing." ”

"Really?" The boy was a little excited. His eldest brother was sent to Nanjing last year, and he came back not long ago, bringing back a lot of good things, and the customs were described as heavenly, and the young man was very fascinated.

For the surrendered Guiyi Mongols, the Ming Dynasty would give each tribe a few places every other section, send a teenager to study in Nanjing, and then send him to serve in the army for three years, and then send him back to accept official positions such as Guiyi Qianhu, Deputy Qianhu, and Baihu to help the court manage the tribe. Of course, if he doesn't want to come back, he can also give up and choose to stay in Guannai.

These quotas are in the hands of the leaders and officers of the tribe, which is considered a privilege, and the young man is the son of the tribal leader, that is, the Ming Dynasty's Qianhu, so it is not a problem to ask for a quota.

The man raised his head, "Of course, if you don't go to the south, you have to take a Chinese name first, and you have to learn Chinese." After you go, if you don't pass the exam and are driven back to the grassland, you will be disgraced to your Abba. ”

For the Ming Dynasty, the first thing to absorb must be the talents in Guiyi, and only by attracting talents can we manage the Mongolian steppe well for the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, the most crucial part of the examination is the examination of politics, to see whether they are close enough to understand and regard themselves as enlightened people.

Only those who pass the political examination are eligible to continue their studies, and then go back to accept the official system of their parents, and if they are not enlightened enough, they can only be sent back to herd cattle.

The young man was a little excited, and wiped his nose with his sleeve again, "Uncle Abba don't worry, if Abba lets me go, I will not embarrass him." ”

The man nodded, smiled at the young man, then looked up at the sky, and suddenly said to a few righteous men behind him: "It's not early, we have to rush to Dingbei Fort before dark, everyone speed up." ”

It was a cold day, cold and snowy, and it would be difficult to spend the night outside, so after Uncle Aba finished speaking, he asked the young man to help drive the cattle and sheep.

At that moment, everyone kept shouting, and the young man was particularly energetic, he and more than a dozen men on horseback drove hundreds of cattle and sheep on the white grassland, slowly moving.

The group hurried away with a happy mood, but at this moment, Uncle Aba, who was beating the horse, suddenly changed his face, and turned his head to look at the north, and he only felt that the earth suddenly trembled.

Although in the past two years, Guiyi Mongolia did not know sword soldiers and took the herdsmen who grazed for the Ming Dynasty, but Uncle Abba was obviously familiar with this sound, which was the movement of cavalry galloping and ten thousand hooves trampling the earth.

The rest of the Guiyi Mongols also sensed the movement, and they all looked to the north, and on the white grassland in the distance, a large black figure suddenly appeared, and thousands of cavalry appeared in their field of vision.

At this time, there were bursts of low horns in the field, the cavalry galloped rapidly, the sound of the horn continued to echo in the field, and the cavalry galloped in a murderous and boundless procession.

Guiyi Mongolia saw a large banner and a large group of Mongolian cavalry holding spears and bows and arrows in the field of vision.

Uncle Abba suddenly turned pale, and immediately exclaimed, "Not good! It's Mobei Mongolia! ”

A heavy snowfall caused a catastrophe in Mobei Mongolia, most of the cattle and sheep froze to death, they had no choice, knowing that the Ming Dynasty was strong, but they could only go south to loot a wave.

The Mongol cavalry that soon appeared found the Guiyi Mongols in the distance and the cattle and sheep they drove, and the Mongol leader led by them pointed forward, and nearly a thousand cavalry swooped down on them.

"Run! Leave the cattle and sheep alone! Uncle Abba shouted in horror, and immediately ordered: "Go to Dingxi Fort quickly!" ”

The group left the cattle and sheep, and then ran eastward, only a moment, the Mongolian cavalry roared to kill, several righteous men could not escape, were shot off the horse by the cavalry, and the corpse fell on the snow-white grassland······

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(End of chapter)